Here are the Canadian hopefuls to bring home medals from Paris

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More than 300 athletes are set to compete for Canada in the 2024 Paris Olympics across more than two dozen sports. Here are the events and athletes not to miss — they’re our best bets for medals. Postmedia’s list of Canada’s most promising medal hopes for the 2024 Games is based on conversations with national sport organization personnel, as well as athlete and team performance at recent major championships.

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Archery

Eric Peters: Men’s recurve

It’s arrows up for the 27-year-old who calls Kitchener, Ont. home. After winning silver at last year’s world championships — Canada’s best ever result at that event — and posting fifth- and seventh-place finishes at World Cups, Peters kept the momentum going into 2024. He has set career highs in World Archery rankings (fifth), average arrow score (9.44) and qualification round score (688 of 720). He’s been competing since age 13 and attended the 2014 Youth Olympics.

Artistic Swimming

Team event

Canada’s medal hopes are pinned to the suits of alternate Sydney Carroll (Saskatoon), Scarlett Finn (Toronto), Audrey Lamothe (Montreal), Jonnie Newman (Calgary), Raphaelle Plante (Quebec), Kenzie Priddell (Regina), Claire Scheffel (Brantford, Ont.), Jacqueline Simoneau (Saint-Laurent, Que.) and Florence Tremblay (Rimouski, Que.). The team event is split into technical, free and acrobatic routines, the latter requiring seven gravity-defying tricks. Simoneau, a veteran of Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, came out of a two-year retirement to help Canada qualify for Paris in both the duet and team events at the 2024 worlds.

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Athletics

Marco Arop: 800 metres

The reigning world champ has run as the favourite and as an underdog, and has no preference. “If I’m the favourite, I have to run fast because I have a target on my back. If I’m the underdog, I have to prove I can win these races. It’s interesting, because even being the world champion, I still don’t feel I’m the favourite (for Paris). There’s a couple of guys out there who I know will give me a challenge.” They are Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, who has the world-leading time of 1:41.56. Now 25, Arop has been trained in Edmonton for a decade by Ron Thompson and in Starkville, Mississippi, by Chris Woods.

Andre De Grasse: 200 metres

The 29-year-old from Markham, Ont. blazed to gold in the 200 metres in Tokyo, where he won in a Canadian record time of 19.62 seconds. He added bronze from the 100 metres and silver from the 4×100-metre relay, and is the only Canadian Olympian to win a medal in every event he entered. His trio from Rio 2016 included silver in the 200 metres and bronze in both the 100 metres and the relay. After a modest break from the gate this season, he whittled his 100-metre time down to the Olympic standard of 10 seconds flat and his 200-metre mark to 19.98 seconds.

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Evan Dunfee: 20-kilometre race walk

After a gutsy bronze medal performance in the last ever Olympic 50-kilometre race in Sapporo, Japan, Dunfee faced an uncertain future. He didn’t feel fast enough to contend at 20 kilometres, the only distance left for men. “I thought I’d stick around until Paris, but probably won’t be fighting for medals … Then in 2022, I win gold at the Commonwealth Games in the 10K and start thinking, maybe other people are right when they tell me I can be fast, that I can still do well over the shorter distance. So, 2023 was about embracing that, trying to figure out the 20K, trying to crack it.” The 33-year-old from Richmond, B.C. finished fourth at the 2023 worlds in a national record time of 1:18.03 and is now fully invested in the distance. He and Olivia Lundman have also qualified for the 35-kilometre mixed team event in Paris.

Ethan Katzberg: Hammer throw

Though just 22, Katzberg has the competition chops necessary for the biggest stages, as evidenced by his performance at the worlds in Budapest last summer, where he ended Pawel Fajdek’s ridiculous run of five straight titles, besting the Polish thrower by 23 centimetres. Katzberg, a native of Nanaimo, B.C., let it be known early this season that he is ready to fend off all challengers for the Olympic title, too. His opener was an eye-popping Canadian record of 84.38 metres in April in Nairobi. He’s on a 13-event winning streak dating back to June 2023 and has thrown over 80 metres in 10 of those events. Based in Kamloops, B.C., Katzberg is coached by Olympic shot put bronze medallist Dylan Armstrong.

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Sarah Mitton: Shot put

The first Canadian woman to win an indoor world shot put title — Mitton threw 20.22 metres in Glasgow in March — also has the world-leading outdoor throw of 20.68 metres this season, 35 centimetres clear of Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands. That makes Mitton a threat for the top of the podium in Paris, which would be a vast improvement over her disappointing Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, where she threw 16.62 metres and didn’t qualify for the final. Coach Richard Parkinson sees American Chase Jackson, two-time world champ, as the chief rival. “They’re friends. Sarah went to her wedding. I told her she is not going to hand you the No. 1 spot, you have to take it from her. So be friends but go take it from her, because that’s what you want.”

Camryn Rogers: Hammer throw

After settling for silver at the 2022 world championships, Rogers wasn’t about to let another opportunity pass in 2023. She hammered the field, winning gold in Budapest with a heave of 77.22 metres, almost a metre better than her nearest American challenger. The 25-year-old from Richmond, B.C. trains with coach Mo Saatara at the University of California Berkeley. She was throwing a modest 71.50 metres in 2019 but has since locked in a Canadian-record personal best of 78.62 metres. “She’s one of the most talented athletes in the world,” said Saatara. “She set her PB last year and is still developing. The sky’s the limit.” Rogers also has gold medals from the U20 worlds and Commonwealth Games, is a three-time NCAA champ and has won four national titles.

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Damian Warner: Decathlon

His rivals were strewn prostrate about the track in Tokyo, gasping for breath after the 1,500-metres, the 10th and final event of their two-day torture test. But Warner, whose last lap kick propelled him into fifth place in the race, was upright and celebrating a gold medal and Olympic record of 9,018 points. It’s the fourth highest decathlon total in history, behind Kevin Mayer (9,126), Ashton Eaton (9,045) and Roman Šebrle (9,026). Warner is in good form again this year and won the prestigious Gotzis Hypo Meeting in May for a record eighth time. The 34-year-old from London, Ont. also has gold medals from two Pan Am Games and one Commonwealth Games and is determined to defend his Olympic title.

Jerome Blake, Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse, Brendon Rodney: 4×100-metre relay

It is said a baton makes a relay team better than the sum of its parts, that running for your club, city, province or country gives you wings. This Canadian squad blazed to a Canadian record of 37.48 seconds at the 2022 worlds to win gold — the nation’s first world title since 1995 and 1997, when Donovan Bailey, Robert Esmie, Glenroy Gilbert and Bruny Surin ruled the roost. This team finished third, but gleaned silver from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after Great Britain was disqualified for a positive doping test; and Brown, Rodney and De Grasse won bronze at Rio 2016 with Akeem Haynes. Most of this current crew has also felt the sting of defeat, failing to advance out of the heats at the 2019 and 2023 worlds.

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Basketball

Kacie Bosch, Paige Crozon, Katherine Plouffe, Michelle Plouffe: Women’s 3×3 tournament

They won the 2022 and 2023 FIBA Women’s Series titles and are the No. 1-ranked team again this season. Katherine Plouffe, 31, is FIBA’s top-rated women’s 3×3 player, with Crozon and Michelle Plouffe right behind her, while Bosch is ranked 15th. However, they enter the Olympic tournament ranked fifth of eight teams behind China, U.S., France and Germany. The Edmonton-based Plouffe twins, both former national teamers, were first to switch from 5-on-5 to 3×3 and they recruited Crozon in 2019 and Bosch in 2021. The team has deep connections to the University of Utah as Michelle Plouffe, Crozon and coach Kim Gaucher are alumni; and the University of Lethbridge where Crozon and Bosch are assistant coaches and Bosch is a former Pronghorn standout.

Men’s 5-on-5 tournament

Loaded with NBA talent, Team Canada should fight for a podium spot. The roster consists of Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Toronto), RJ Barrett (Mississauga), Khem Birch (Montreal), Dillon Brooks (Mississauga), Luguentz Dort (Montreal), Melvin Ejim (Toronto), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Hamilton), Trey Lyles (Saskatoon), Jamal Murray (Kitchener), Andrew Nembhard (Aurora, Ont.), captain Kelly Olynyk (Kamloops, B.C.) and Dwight Powell (Toronto). For the qualifying round, Team Canada is in Pool A, along with Greece, Australia and Spain.

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Beach volleyball

Melissa Humana Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson: Women’s tournament

Ranked third in the world heading into Paris, the Canadian duo has hit the podium in four of their last 10 events, including a win on home soil in Montreal in 2023, and second-place finishes in Doha and Ostrava earlier this year. They also wound up fifth in five of those 10 events. Former teammates at York University, they joined forces on the international tour in October 2022. Humana-Paredes is 31, Wilkerson 32. Both competed at Tokyo 2020 with other partners.

Boxing

Tammara Thibeault: 75kg

Though her trophy case is stuffed with medals from the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games and the Women’s World Championships, the 27-year-old middleweight from Shawinigan, Que. is hungry to add Olympic hardware. In her debut at Tokyo 2020, she advanced to the quarterfinals, but was stopped 5-0 by Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands again. Fontijn also beat Thibeault in the semifinals at the 2019 worlds. Fontijn has since retired and Tokyo gold medallist Lauren Price has gone pro, meaning the path to the top step of the podium will likely have to go through China’s Qian Li, who won silver in Tokyo and bronze at Rio 2016. Thibeault, a six-foot southpaw, owns a 2-1 record versus Li.

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Breaking

Philip Kim: Men’s event

The 27-year-old, whose competition name is B-Boy Phil Wizard, was born in Toronto but calls Vancouver home. He sandwiched 2022 world championship gold between silver-medal finishes at the 2021 and 2023 worlds, and punched his ticket to Paris for the Olympic debut of breaking by winning the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile last year. The men’s breaking event will pit 16 competitors against one another in a series of judged, solo battles. Breaking has evolved from break dancing, which has its roots in 1970s American hip hop culture.

Canoe Sprint

Katie Vincent: C1 200 and C2 500 with Sloan MacKenzie

It must have seemed like she was paddling uphill at times. There was that case of shingles at the 2018 worlds, the suspension of her former C2 500 partner Laurence Vincent Lapointe just prior to the 2019 worlds, and the broken arm she suffered in a biking accident weeks before the 2023 worlds. Barring anything unforeseen, Vincent, a 28-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., appears to be in great shape to challenge for the podium in her individual specialty. She won the C1 200 world title in the fall of 2021, not long after finishing eighth at Tokyo 2020, where women’s sprint canoe made its Olympics debut. She has nine world championship gold medals to her credit and has been paddling since age 10. Vincent will team up with MacKenzie for the C2 500 race, where they are favoured to hit the podium. MacKenzie, a 22-year-old from Windsor Junction, N.S., hit the international scene in 2022 at the worlds. She and Vincent teamed up for Pan Am Games gold last year.

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Diving

Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens: 10-metre synchro

Paired up in 2022, they won world championship bronze, Canada’s first ever medal in that event at worlds, and Commonwealth Games silver that year. They followed it up with Pan Am Games silver in 2023, but fell off the podium at the 2024 worlds, finishing fifth. Zsombor-Murray is a 21-year-old from Pointe Claire, Que., Wiens a 22-year-old from Saskatoon.

Judo

Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard: 63kg

The 30-year-old from Montreal, who won bronze at Tokyo 2020, finished off the podium in fifth at the world championships earlier this year, but is still ranked second in the world heading into Paris and managed to beat reigning Olympic champion Clarisse Agbegnenou of France.

Christa Deguchi: 57 kg

Canada’s most decorated female judoka has won 37 international medals, including gold at the 2019 and 2023 world championships. A native of Japan, the 28-year-old began competing in 2017 for Canada, where her father was born. In her last five events she has come away with two gold medals, two silver and a bronze, and enters the Olympics ranked No. 1 in her division.

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Shady Elnahas: 100 kg

Motivated by a tie for fifth place in his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 — where he lost the bronze medal match to Jorge Fonseca of Portugal — Elnahas has stepped up his game heading into Paris. After winning the 2023 Pan Am Games and taking silver at the 2024 worlds, he enters his second Olympic Games ranked No. 3 in his division.

Rowing

Women’s eights

Returnees from the gold medal crew in Tokyo 2020 are Sydney Payne (Toronto), Avalon Wasteneys (Campbell River, B.C.), Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski (Knowlton, Que.) and coxswain Kristen Kit (St. Catharines, Ont.). Joining them for Paris 2024 are Abby Dent, (Kenora, Ont.), Caileigh Filmer (Victoria), Maya Meschkuleit (Mississauga), Jessica Sevick, (Strathmore, Alta.) and Kristina Walker (Wolfe Island, Ont.). The team has undergone significant change since finishing third at the 2022 worlds and a rather disastrous fifth in 2023. Romania won the world championships in 2022 and 2023 and should give Canada the biggest test in Paris.

Rugby 7s

Women’s tournament

Team Canada — competing in Pool A with New Zealand, Fiji and China — is comprised of Caroline Crossley (Victoria), Olivia Apps (Lindsay, Ont.), Alysha Corrigan (Charlottetown), Asia Hogan-Rochester (Toronto), Chloe Daniels (Sutton, Ont.), Charity Williams (Toronto), Florence Symonds (Vancouver), Carissa Norsten (Waldheim, Sask.), Krissy Scurfield (Canmore, Alta.), Fancy Bermudez (Edmonton), Piper Logan (Calgary), Keyara Wardley (Vulcan, Alta.) and alternate Taylor Perry (Oakville). Williams makes her third Olympic appearance while Apps and Wardley are the other holdovers from Tokyo 2020, and seven players remain from the 2023 Pan Am Games gold medal team. Canada finished the 2024 season ranked fourth.

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Sailing

Sarah Douglas: ILCA6 (formerly laser radial)

Her sixth-place finish at Tokyo 2020 was the best ever by a female Canadian sailor in an individual event. She followed it up with two international regatta victories, one each in 2022 and 2023, and a silver medal at the 2023 Pan Am Games, which pairs nicely with the gold she won at the 2019 Pan Ams. The 30-year-old was born in Burlington, Ont., but calls Toronto home.

Swimming

Maggie Mac Neil: 100-metre butterfly

The 24-year-old from London, Ont. departed Tokyo 2020 with a medal of each colour; gold from her specialty, the 100-metre butterfly, silver and bronze from relays. Mac Neil’s medal collection also includes five from the 2022 Commonwealth Games and seven from the 2023 Pan Am Games. She was the 100-metre butterfly world champ in 2019, then settled for silver in 2023, when she finished behind China’s Zhang Yufei, one of 23 Chinese athletes who in 2021 returned positive doping tests for trimetazidine, a banned heart medication.

Kylie Masse: 100-metre backstroke

The 28-year-old from Lasalle, Ont. hit the wall in 57.94 seconds at the Canadian trials in May, and two months later that time ranks fifth in the world, so she has an outside shot at a medal in Paris. Masse owned this event in 2017, grabbing world championship gold in a then world-record time of 58.10 seconds. She defended that title at the 2019 championships but dropped to silver in 2022 and fell off the podium to fourth last year.

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Summer McIntosh: freestyle, butterfly and individual medley races

This could well be the Summer McIntosh Olympics. Though only 17, McIntosh is favoured to win a handful of individual and relay medals, including gold in the 200-metre butterfly and 400-metre individual medley. She owns the world record in the latter event. The Toronto native made a promising Olympic debut in Tokyo as a 14-year-old, finishing fourth in the 400-metre freestyle and contributing to a fourth-place relay finish, and has since blossomed into a podium threat. She won four medals at each of the 2022 and 2023 world championships — four of them are gold, a Canadian best — and is seen as the heir apparent to Canada’s most decorated Olympian, Penny Oleksiak.

Taekwondo

Skylar Park: 57kg

With a gold medal at the 2023 Pan Am Games, and three other international victories that year, Park established herself as a viable podium threat for Paris, and enters the Games ranked fourth in her division. The 25-year-old from Winnipeg made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, stopped in the quarterfinals by Lo Chia-ling of Taiwan, the eventual bronze medallist. Park, who earned her black belt at age seven, burst onto the international scene by winning world junior championship gold in 2016 and world championship bronze in 2019.

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Weightlifting

Maude Charron: 59kg

With gold medals from the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games in her collection, the Rimouski, Que. native ranks among the best Canadians in her sport. She won gold at Tokyo 2020 in the 64kg class, which was eliminated by the world governing body, so she has geared down and appears to be in peak form after lifting a personal best total of 236kg at a World Cup in Thailand earlier this year.

dbarnes@postmedia.com

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